


The Spirit Zone

by Honyasbookshelf



Series: Taako's Adventures in Ghibliland [2]
Category: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away, The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Campaign: Balance (The Adventure Zone), Cuddles, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fantasy, Friendship, Kissing, M/M, Misunderstandings, Romance, Spirited Away AU, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:07:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28172901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honyasbookshelf/pseuds/Honyasbookshelf
Summary: “What struck Taako the most about the guy was that, while Taako had no idea who he was, the guy had a definite look of recognition mixed with the horror on his face.'Why are you just standing there?' the guy asked, grabbing Taako's shoulder and spinning him away from the spa and towards the stairs down into the rest of the abandoned park. 'You can't be here! The sun's about to go down! Hurry! You have to get across the river before dark.'”A road trip with Magnus and Merle turns into an extremely surreal adventure for Taako. Basically, this is an aged-up retelling ofSpirited Awayin which Taako is Chihiro and Kravitz is Haku.While this is technically part of a series, the stories are only connected thematically, and this story can be read on its own.
Relationships: Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone), Ren & Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Series: Taako's Adventures in Ghibliland [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2002108
Comments: 12
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I am both super excited and super nervous to be posting this story! I absolutely *love* how it came out, and I hope you do, too. But I should say up front that I took a lot of liberties with the plot in order to make the story work, at times heavily altering or even eliminating plot elements and characters from _Spirited Away_. I'd love to hear what you think. Enjoy!

Taako sighed, staring out the window of Magnus's Jeep and watching trees, trees, and more trees pass by. In the front seat, Magnus and Merle argued over whether or not they were lost. Taako looked forlornly at the note Lup had stuffed into his backpack before he left that morning. _Taako, Miss you already. I packed extra bug spray and cookies in your bag. See you Friday! Love, Lup._ He shoved the note in his jeans pocket.

Taako sighed again, dramatically and loudly—not that anyone was listening. He wondered how exactly he had been talked into spending spring break of his senior year backpacking through the middle of nowhere with Magnus and Merle. It was a moment of weakness he was already regretting. He was a delicate creature meant to live in luxury, not roughing it in the woods. Of course, he _could_ have stayed home with his sister, only she had been _so_ excited to spend the break hanging out with her boyfriend. Barry was a year older than them and had started college this year, so they weren't able to see each other as much. Taako loved them both, and they were always careful to not make him feel like a third wheel, but he still didn't want to impose on their time together. Thus, backpacking.

“I think you took a wrong turn up there,” Merle declared, his voice sounding shaky because of the roughness of the—was that gravel?—road they were now traveling on.

“I'm pretty sure this is a short cut,” Magnus replied confidently, pushing the Jeep along the road at a breakneck pace that had Taako clutching the edge of the seat.

 _This is how I die,_ he thought. Aloud, he said, “Maggie, I swear, if you kill us out here, I will come back to haunt your ass. I can't even get any cell service if we wreck.”

“Relax, this thing's all-terrain. We'll be fine,” Magnus said, carrying on without slowing—that is, until he came to an abrupt stop when the road dead-ended in front of a large building.

“What on earth?” Merle said, getting out of the car to take a closer look. Magnus put the Jeep in park and quickly followed. Taako stared through the windshield, decidedly _not_ getting out. The place looked old and abandoned, probably about to fall in. Taako quickly decided it was hella creepy.

Naturally, Magnus and Merle had to go inside to check it out. Now, Taako was creeped out by the place. But he was maybe even more creeped out by being left alone in the woods with no cell signal in front of said creepy place.

“Hey guys, wait up!” he called, crawling out of the Jeep and hurrying after his friends. As he approached the building, it felt almost as though the wind were pulling him in. He felt a shiver run up his spine.

“Guys, I have a bad feeling about this. We should just go.”

“Come on, where's your sense of adventure?” Magnus asked, fully prepared to rush into an unknown situation without taking stock at all beforehand. Typical. The sound of an old-fashioned steam train whistled in the distance. “Huh, we must be near a train station,” he mused.

“Hey, this place looks like an abandoned amusement park or something. I bet there's some interesting stuff here,” Merle added, going deeper into the eerie building. After what seemed like far too long for what seemed to be an abandoned admissions building, they finally broke through into sunlight again on the opposite side.

The sight that greeted them was, quite frankly, surreal. A wide, open field stretched before them, broken by a small, man-made stream. They waded across easily, approaching a large cluster of false-fronted buildings, each seeming to be some sort of abandoned restaurant.

“Wow, this is some chintzy amusement park,” Taako quipped. “There's not even any rides. Booooring. Can we go, now?”

“Wait,” Magnus said, sniffing the air. “This place might still be open; I think I smell food. I'm starving!”

“You know, I think you're right,” Merle replied, following his nose down the cobblestone street that cut between the building fronts.

After a few minutes of exploring, they found the source of the smell. One of the open-fronted stalls appeared to be open, a large buffet spread out along the counter. There were all sorts of delicious-smelling foods, some familiar, some entirely novel.

There was no one working the counter. There was no one to be seen anywhere at all. Taako couldn't say why, exactly, but he had a horrible feeling about all of this. Something was terribly wrong, and they needed to leave. Now.

Magnus and Merle were oblivious, however. They sat at the counter and filled their plates and their faces, saying they'd pay whenever the proprietor returned. Taako stared at them for a minute, a feeling of deep wrongness welling up within him, before he turned on his heel to look around some more. The sensation that something was wrong wasn't leaving him, so he wanted to get a better idea of just what they were dealing with.

It was getting late in the afternoon by that point, and the sun would be setting soon. He did _not_ want to still be here then. After wandering the empty streets for a while, Taako stumbled upon a long staircase leading up to what appeared to be some kind of fancy spa resort. _That_ was strange to find in a place like this. Stranger still, there appeared to be smoke or steam rising from a chimney of sorts, like maybe the place was actually open? Not that Taako could see anyone around. Par for the exceedingly creepy course around here.

He drew closer, stepping onto a small footbridge crossing over a deep gorge in front of the place. As he looked over the railing, a train passed over the track running through the gorge. It was kind of a relief; the first real sign of life he'd seen in what seemed like forever.

“What are you doing here?!” Taako spun to face the voice coming behind him on the bridge. Almost directly behind him stood a very attractive man, perhaps a few years older than himself, with dark skin, high cheekbones, and shoulder-length dreadlocks pulled back away from his face. He wore an old-fashioned suit, which struck Taako as very odd—although his definition of odd was being stretched quite a bit today. There was a small silver skull earring in one ear. The whole look was very goth. What struck Taako the most about the guy was that, while Taako had no idea who he was, the guy had a definite look of recognition mixed with the horror on his face.

“Why are you just standing there?” the guy asked, grabbing Taako's shoulder and spinning him away from the spa and towards the stairs down into the rest of the abandoned park. “You can't be here! The sun's about to go down! Hurry! You have to get across the river before dark.”

Lights started coming on in the surrounding buildings as the shadows around them grew longer. “Shit!” the guy added. “They're turning the lights on. Go! I'll distract them!”

Taako desperately wanted to stay and ask questions, but finding himself somehow caught up in the guy's urgency, he scurried off. He couldn't say why, but he found himself trusting the guy. As he ran, he looked over his shoulder and saw the guy blowing a swirl of something from his hand. If Taako hadn't known better, he would have said it almost looked like magic.

“What the fuck?” he wondered to himself as he darted through the streets, becoming more and more freaked out as lights came on in the buildings around him and shadows began rising out of nothing, moving through the streets like the ghosts of past inhabitants. He had to find Magnus and Merle and get the heck out of here.

After what seemed like forever, but could have only been about five minutes, he finally backtracked to the stall where he had left his friends. The flood of relief that had begun to fill him quickly turned cold and terrifying as he reached out to touch Magnus's shoulder—only to find a pig dressed in Magnus's clothes instead! He looked to where Merle had been to find the same thing. This _could not_ be happening.

“Mags? Merle?” he asked, not really believing that these could possibly be his friends. This had to be some kind of trick. If those two had plotted this behind his back, they were going to get it. Taako held onto that spark of anger to get his feet moving. More and more shadowy figures were passing him, and it was really freaking him out. “Magnus! Merle!” he yelled, running through the park towards the entrance now. Surely they were waiting by the Jeep, laughing at the hilarious trick they'd pulled on him.

As he approached the field where they had crossed the small stream, he abruptly found himself plunging nearly knee-deep into cold water.

“What the—water?!” he said, shocked. There had definitely _not_ been water there earlier today. Not this much. This was bad. He looked across, lights from the park reflecting in the water. It was way too wide for him to reasonably cross, and it looked deep, too. As he stared in bewilderment, he saw some kind of fancy riverboat crossing over from the opposite side. It reached the side of the water he was on and put out a gangplank. All sorts of beings began disembarking—strange, ephemeral things of the sort he'd only ever seen in anime and fantasy movies. There was _no way_ this was real.

“No fucking way,” Taako muttered to himself, breath coming far too fast and heart feeling ready to beat right out of his chest. “This cannot be happening. I've got to be dreaming. Did I hit my head?” He closed his eyes, covering them with his long, slender fingers, and willed it all to go away and be normal again.

He opened his eyes, pulling his hands away to see . . . it was all the same, only _now_ he could see _through_ his hands. He looked down at the rest of himself. Transparent. He could literally see the ground through his feet. Panic set in, and he ran headlong up the hill, not really caring where he went as long as it was away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the crazy train is starting for poor Taako. At least he has an ally(?) in the midst of it. We'll get more into the actual romantic bits with the next chapter.
> 
> Let me know what you think! I'll try to have the next chapter up by next Saturday at the latest (but honestly, it'll probably be before then; I'm excited to post this). Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Not long after Taako's initial panicked run, the goth guy from earlier found him, huddled in the shadows against a building, head buried against his knees. Taako felt the guy crouch down in front of him, placing a hand on Taako's knee.

“Hey, shh. Everything will be all right, I promise,” the guy said. The deep, reassuring tone, even more than the words, cut through the anxiety filling Taako at the moment, and he raised his head, lips trembling and eyes watery. He probably looked a mess, but for once in his life, he couldn't be bothered to care.

“Here,” the guy continued, holding out a small berry. “Eat this. It will make you solid again.”

Taako started to shake his head in protest. The guy's intentions seemed good, but eating food here seemed like a _really_ bad idea. He'd seen what happened to Magnus and Merle, even if he wasn't quite ready to admit that it had actually happened. He reached out to push the offered food away, but to his horror, his hands went straight through the guy. Like a freaking ghost. What the hell? Seeming to understand Taako's conundrum, tall, dark, and goth (as Taako had begun to think of him in the small part of his brain not devoted to freaking out right now) raised his hands placatingly.

“It's safe; it won't turn you into a pig.” A slight smile graced his lips. Taako kind of hated that he found that so hot in this terrible situation. He opened his mouth and let the guy place the berry in his mouth. His fingers, when they brushed against Taako's lips, were surprisingly cold, although, in the moment, Taako noticed more that he was able to feel them at all. He struggled to chew and swallow the berry, still struggling with his limited tangibility.

“There, that's better. See?” the guy said after Taako had swallowed. He raised his hand in front of him so Taako could touch it. Taako placed his palm flat against the other guy's, and the guy laced their fingers together. Cold, but solid and reassuring. Taako closed his fingers, giving the guy's hand a soft squeeze.

“My name is Krav. I'm going to help you.”

“Okay,” Taako whispered. “Hey, Krav, my friends didn't really turn into pigs, did they? That's all some crazy joke, yeah?”

“It's going to be all right,” Krav replied, clearly side-stepping the question. “You can't see your friends right now, but I'll take you to them later.”

A shadow approached, a raven flying through the night. Krav glanced up at it for a moment before gripping Taako protectively, pressing him into the shadows of the wall. His free hand cupped Taako's face gently, and he kissed him with such a gentle intensity that Taako found himself responding instinctually. Kissing a guy right after meeting him wasn't usually his thing; he would be the first to admit that he had way too many trust issues for that. He should probably be angry at Krav for kissing him when he was so vulnerable, but . . . Krav made him feel safe, he realized. Something tense inside him unwound a bit at the thought.

After several seconds, Krav pulled back, looking into Taako's face with self-conscious embarrassment, yes, but also with a tenderness, concern, and protectiveness that surprised Taako. It was like he had known and cared for Taako for a long time rather than just met him, only Taako couldn't remember him at all.

“Sorry. That was one of the Raven Queen's familiars. She runs this place. They're looking for you. That was . . . the best way I could think of to hide you. And I kind of just wanted to,” Krav said softly, standing. He offered Taako a hand to stand as well.

“It's all good, my dude. That was . . . nice. I think. I'd have to try it again to say for sure,” Taako replied, blushing, a weakly flirtatious smile forming on his still-trembling lips. “But uh, I might need some help here. I don't think I can move my legs.” They really didn't feel like they'd support him at all.

Krav bent over, softly singing what almost sounded like a spell, and Taako found that his muscles would once again obey him. Krav dragged him to his feet, and they were off, still holding hands, through back alleys, shop storerooms, and—once—a large stable full of pigs. That freaked Taako out more than a little. As they ran, it seemed as though the wind aided their progress, pushing them to greater speeds than seemed possible and gusting open doors standing in their path. Taako was quite breathless by the time they arrived at a quiet flower garden off to the side of the big spa building.

Krav—as composed as ever—turned to him, humming a few quiet bars. “The bridge ahead is a magical barrier of sorts. I've placed a spell on you that will hide you from detection, but you have to hold your breath while we cross, or you'll register as living and be caught. Not one breath, all right?”

“Yeah, okay. I got it,” Taako replied nervously, reaching out to take Krav's proffered hand. He couldn't believe he was just going along with this, but he found himself trusting Krav. Also, what else was he supposed to do at this point? He huddled close to Krav's side as they left the quiet of the garden and merged into the steady stream of strange beings (spirits, Taako's mind interjected absently) heading into the spa resort.

“Deep breath and hold it,” Krav murmured as they reached the edge of the bridge. He squeezed Taako's hand reassuringly. Taako followed his instructions, keeping pace with Krav's steady stride across the bridge despite his urge to cut and run. His lungs were burning by the time some random employee came running up to Krav, warning him that the Raven Queen was waiting for his return and to report in immediately. Krav tried to walk past, but the little twerp kept hopping around in front of them. They were so close, but Taako simply could not hold his breath any longer.

A quick breath exploded from him before he clapped his free hand over his mouth, but the damage was already done. The employee stared at Taako in disbelief, opening his mouth to shout. Krav cast some kind of spell on him that temporarily stalled him, then grabbed Taako and pulled him away, across the rest of the bridge and through several twisting garden paths, until Taako was sure they must have lost anyone who might have been following them. Pausing to breathe under the shadow of a camellia, Krav turned to him.

“This is where we must part for now.” He reached up to touch Taako's forehead, and Taako saw what he was describing play out in his mind like he was seeing it. Now that was wild; yet another thing he would freak out over if his mind weren't already so overloaded.

“There's an employee entrance gate on the other side of this garden,” Krav continued. “Through it, there's a stair going down to the boiler room. You have to ask Garfield, the boiler man, for a job. He'll probably give you a hard time about it, but you must keep asking, no matter what. If you have a job, you can stay and help your friends. Okay?”

Taako nodded. “'Kay. Hey Krav? My friends really did get turned into pigs, didn't they?”

“Yes, they did. But we're going to save them. Promise. And Taako?”

“Yeah?”

“No matter what you see or hear, always remember that I'm your friend, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. I can do that. Hey wait, how did you know my name's Taako?”

“I've known you for a long time,” Krav replied, a fond smile on his lips.

“I don't remember,” Taako almost whined, furrowing his brow. That bothered him.

Taako closed his eyes as Krav leaned in for a brief, chaste kiss before turning away and stalking determinedly towards a side entrance to the spa. Taako faintly heard other workers greeting him, sounding anxious for him to report in to this Raven Queen chick. Taako was _so_ not okay with this person, and he hadn't even met her yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Taako and Krav had properly met now . . . or is it met again?
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading! I hope you had fun with this chapter. I'll plan to have the next chapter up by next Tuesday, although it will likely be sooner.


	3. Chapter 3

Sighing, Taako turned to go through the gate Krav had indicated. On the other side was an open, rickety stairway that descended for several floors. Past its edge, he could see down into the deep chasm with the train running through it far below. Taako gulped. That was a hell of a long way down.

“What a deathtrap. Total OSHA violation, here,” he quipped, trying to make light of the situation, even as he felt his knees trembling. He crept down the steps with extreme caution—until he got to the ninth step down. That one splintered beneath his feet, sending him hurtling down the remaining stairs, screaming, at a breakneck pace, until he faceplanted breathlessly into the wall at the bottom. _Ow!_

He would have loved to just crumple to the ground to recover for a few minutes. Or, you know, days would be good, too. But of course, that was when a spa employee popped open a back window right over Taako's head to enjoy a smoke break. Taako quickly pulled himself together and slunk around the corner to avoid being seen.

He sneaked through the back employee entrance, into a huge (but currently unoccupied) laundry room. Carrying on past that through several other rooms of various uses, he eventually found himself at the door to the boiler room. Steeling himself, he took a deep breath and turned the doorknob to enter.

A blast of heat hit him as he entered the room, along with a strong medicinal smell. He took in the large, coal-powered boiler being fed by hordes of what appeared to be tiny magical sprites of some sort. Holy shit, this place was strange, but well . . . wouldn't be the weirdest thing he'd seen today. Rows of drawers lined the walls all the way to the high ceiling. And in the center of the room, a hooded figure leaned over a table, grinding something in a large mortar.

At the sound of his entrance, the hooded figure turned. All Taako could make out beneath the hood was a pair of glowing eyes.

“Hi! I'm Garfield the deals warlock!” the figure exclaimed. The glowing eyes blinked. “Wait, new job. Let me try that again. Hi! I'm Garfield the boiler man. Yeah, see. It just doesn't have the same ring, does it? Anyway, what can I do for you, young man? Would you like to make a deal?”

“Actually, uh, I need a job,” Taako said, a bit taken aback. This guy was kind of a weirdo. Assuming it even _was_ a guy under all that fabric. Around here, he might just be a pair of floating eyes.

“A job? What could a scrawny, prissy thing like you possibly have to offer? Besides, I have all the help I need,” the guy replied, pointing to the sprites scurrying across the floor.

Taako bristled. He was _delicate_ , thank-you-very-much. And gorgeous, can't forget that. He most certainly wasn't _scrawny_. Rude!

“Look, my dude. I don't know what to tell you. Krav told me to come here and ask you for a job. I'm not leaving until I get one.” Taako's shoulders hunched defensively, but he raised his chin to meet this Garfield's eyes in defiance.

The eyes under the hood narrowed, as though weighing Taako's worth or some such shit. Then he just . . . turned back to his work, ignoring Taako completely. What kind of jerk was this guy?! Taako heaved a frustrated sigh and sank onto the floor to sit curled into himself. He couldn't leave until this Garfield guy gave him work, so he guessed he'd just sit here until that happened. Offer up annoying comments just frequently enough to be really irritating. Hey, it was kind of entertaining to watch the sprites work, at least.

As he sat there, another door on the opposite side of the room opened, and a woman walked in carrying a tray of food. Taako looked up at her, intrigued. She looked more human than most of the beings he had seen here, only she had white hair, greyish skin, and pointed ears like some kinda elf or something. Only, instead of giving off a pretty, delicate vibe, she looked tough, like she knew how to handle herself. Huh.

“Hey, Garfield, breakfast time,” she said. “Gosh, this place is a sty! You could at least put out your old dishes so I can take them back to be washed.” Taako looked around absently. The place wasn't that bad. Okay to be fair, he was the sort to leave piles of clothes on the floor until laundry day, but still.

As the woman turned to grab Garfield's old dishes, she finally noticed Taako sitting there. She pointed at him, eyes wide.

“You-you're the living everyone's all worked up about, aren't you? You can't be here.”

“Relax, Ren. He's all right,” Taako was surprised to hear Garfield defending him. “Look, he needs work, and I don't have anything for him down here right now. Take him to the Raven Queen, would you; see what you can set up?”

“Look, Garfield, you know I'd love to help,” Ren replied, not really sounding like she would. “But I could lose my job, dragging a living into the spa.”

“I'll make you a deal,” Garfield said. “You take the kid to see the Raven Queen, and I'll give you a piece of my grandmother's famous fudge. You know you want some.” He pulled out a generous slab of fudge. Taako's mouth began to water; it smelled delicious even from where he was sitting.

Garfield turned to Taako, speaking as though it were a done deal, even though Ren hadn't agreed yet. “You'll have to make a deal with the Raven Queen. Then she can't make you leave and you'll be safe.” Taako nodded, mind spinning with how fast everything was moving.

“Fine.” Ren grabbed the fudge and turned to leave, calling over her shoulder, “Come on, kid. I don't have all day. Let's go.”

Taako stumbled to his feet, nearly tripping in his hurry to follow her.

“Sheesh, what a loser,” she snorted. “Leave your shoes there. You don't want to track mud into the spa on top of everything.”

Taako reluctantly complied. Those shoes had better be here when he came back for them, though. Lup had talked him into getting some sensible hiking shoes for this trip, but he had found some with flowers printed all over them, and he really liked them. Once he had placed his shoes neatly in a corner of the room, he hurried off after Ren, yelling a quick “thanks, I guess, dude” to Garfield over his shoulder.

***

Taako followed Ren as she wended her way through back halls, stopping to drop off Garfield's dishes in the kitchen. It was obvious she was trying to avoid being noticed. It didn't seem like that would be too big a problem, though. All around them, the place was a beehive of activity, everyone focusing on their own tasks. Staff members were busy preparing the spa areas for the guests, chefs were cooking a vast and impressive breakfast, and guests were either just arriving or—for those who had stayed over—lounging around in fancy bathrobes sipping tea and eating breakfast. Taako was reluctantly impressed by the efficiency and opulence of it all, and he wasn't an easy person to impress.

As she darted towards an elevator ahead of them, Ren called over her shoulder, “Try to keep up.”

Taako snorted to himself. _Sassy_. Typically, he would snark right back, but at the moment, the best he could think of was _Keep up yourself_. Lame, he knew, so he decided to just bite his tongue. He entered the elevator after her, ascending even further. This place was some kind of crazy maze. After a few floors, they had to get off this elevator and get on another.

Which would have been fine, only at that point, some real boy scout employee came up saying he “smelled a living” and asking if Ren was “harboring the fugitive.” What a douchebag. Ren had already shoved Taako into the elevator, and he was hiding in the corner. Ren distracted the guy by totally snarking at him, which, okay, Taako could respect that. It wasn't going to hold the guy off for long, though, and Taako didn't know what to do.

About that time, an overweight guest with a robe wrapped around him and not much else squeezed into the elevator with Taako. Taako _knew_ the guy saw him, but the guy just turned, ignoring him completely. Thank goodness he wasn't going to make a fuss. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the guest exchange a wink with Ren. What?

“You're going to want the top floor,” she called, and the guest pushed the button for that. Taako breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't been able to reach the buttons without getting right into that rat of an employee's line of sight.

“Thanks,” he muttered quietly to the guest before they both descended into the awkward silence of a too-squished elevator ride. Zen spa music played in the background. Taako was feeling anything but zen at the moment.

After what felt like forever, they finally reached the top floor. Taako squeezed out when it became obvious the other guy wasn't actually getting out on this floor. They exchanged a brief, awkward wave before the elevator doors closed again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there's no Krav in this chapter, but we do get to meet Garfield and Ren. And next chapter, Taako will be encountering the Raven Queen for the first time. Dun dun dun.
> 
> I'll try to have the next chapter up by next Saturday at the latest, probably by next Tuesday. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed. Let me know what you think. :)


	4. Chapter 4

Taako took a deep breath to center himself, inspecting his surroundings. He was in an expansive, ornate entryway featuring some strong gothic vibes. The colors were dark and a raven motif kept popping up wherever he looked.

“Gosh, dramatic much?” he murmured to himself, torn between wanting to hate this Raven Queen person and feeling a grudging admiration for her design sense. The commitment to the theme was pretty impressive, he had to admit.

He approached a set of huge double doors, examining the knocker which was, predictably, a raven's head. Rather, it might be more apt to say that he _stalled_ in front of the door, knowing he would have to knock but dreading actually doing it. Before he could work up the nerve, he heard an echoing female voice that sounded as though it were coming from everywhere around him at once.

“Well, child, what do you want? Are you not going to knock? Come.”

At that, the doors in front of him flew open, and he found himself carried along in a rush of what felt remarkably like feathers (although he could see nothing beneath him) through a series of long, dark hallways until he was deposited unceremoniously on a plush, purple rug.

Before him, he sensed rather than saw a presence so vast that it shook him to his core. He found that he could not properly look at the being in front of him, although if he glanced through his peripheral vision, he got a sense of darkness and feathers. He found himself shaking violently, and could not seem to force himself to speak. The voice spoke again, echoing as though from all around with the sound of rushing wings.

“I am the Raven Queen. What is it that you seek? Speak.”

As though something within him had been released, Taako once again found himself able to form words.

“I-I need to work here, I guess. I was told to ask you for a job.”

“And why would I need a living like _you_ working here in a spa for the spirits?” The voice was not unkind, per se, but it made a shiver run up and down Taako's spine. Still, he gathered himself to respond.

“Look lady, I don't really understand everything that's going on here, but Krav said I have to get a job here. I just _have_ to.”

“Oh, Krav said _that_ did he?” She sounded almost amused now. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Taako had no idea.

“Well, in that case. . . .” she added enigmatically.

There was a rustling for a few minutes as Taako stood, trying not to fidget nervously. Then a clipboard with a paper on it was shoved in his face, along with an old-fashioned quill pen. The combination struck him as funny—odd what one latches onto in moments of high tension. He looked at the paper more closely and found, to his confusion, that it was full of script that he couldn't read . . . not that it was in a foreign script, but rather that it ran together into an illegible blur. Strange. Just when he thought this place couldn't get any more uncanny.

“That's your contract,” the Raven Queen said. “Sign your name away to me and I will permit you to work here.”

“I don't understand. Where—?”

“Just sign at the bottom. Here.”

Taako nearly jumped out of his skin when a raven landed unexpectedly on the top of the clipboard and used its beak to point out the line where he was to sign. The bird was _heavy_! _Oh_ , he thought, _this must be one of her familiars Krav was talking about?_ He signed where the bird indicated. What else was he to do at this point?

“Good. You will be known as Koko now,” she said, taking the signed contract back from him.

“You called, my lady?” a stiff, Cockney-accented voice said from behind his shoulder. It startled Taako after the weird, echoey voice of the Raven Queen, and he struggled to get his breathing and heart rate back to a normal level as he turned to see Krav. Only, something was horribly wrong. The tender, sweet expression was gone from his face, replaced with a cold stare that seemed to look right through Taako.

“My Krav, this boy signed a contract. Get him set up with some work, would you?” the Raven Queen said.

“Of course, my lady. You,” he turned to address Taako, “what's your name.”

“You know it's Taak—oh, um, it's Koko now, I guess?”

“Right then, Koko, follow me,” Krav said, still in that strange, unsettling accent, before turning and walking away. (And okay, the accent would maybe be cute and funny if everything else weren't so off right then, but at the moment it was freaking Taako out.)

Taako followed, stumbling over his own feet as he struggled to collect his wits. _Wrong, wrong, wrong_ , his mind echoed. Why was Krav acting so differently?!

The two stood side-by-side in the descending elevator, the silence growing more and more awkward between them until Taako could no longer contain himself.

“Hey, Krav, what gi—”

“Do not speak to me,” Krav interrupted him, still not properly looking at him. “And call me Master Krav.”

Seriously, what?! Taako recoiled, feeling as though he had been slapped in the face. He stared in dumbfounded silence, forcing himself to not cry—or just start screaming in anger at the apparent betrayal—until the elevator reached its destination.

When they got to the main floor, he found himself shoved off on Ren, clearly the booby-prize assistant that no one wanted. Honestly, Krav was acting like he didn't care what happened to him. Ren acted super grumpy about having to take him on, too. He felt a bit hurt by that; he'd thought they were developing a rapport. Mostly, his mind was still whirling from Krav's abrupt change in attitude, though.

“C'mon, newbie. I'll show you around,” Ren said grumpily, dragging him from his thoughts. However, once they had gotten away from the others, her tone changed drastically. She turned around with a grin on her face and grabbed his hands, spinning him around in a small celebratory dance.

“I can't believe you actually pulled it off! Nice work! I was worried about you.”

“Ah, you know. Throw in a little of that classic Taako, er, Koko charm. It wasn't that hard.”

“Really? How did you get her to take you on?”

“You know, I'm still not quite sure. But I'll take it?” He smiled weakly. It was hard not to get pulled into Ren's elation, even though Taako knew he had a lot to feel uncertain about.

His good mood didn't last, though, as he followed Ren through the building to collect his new uniform. They took his own clothes away, as well as his cell—still no signal—and Lup's note. He was _so_ not okay with that, but it all just happened so fast. All they left him was the elastic tie he used to hold back his long, flowing hair in a ponytail.

“Hey, Ren?” he asked through the door as he changed his clothes.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“You know Krav?”

“What about that asshole?” Whoa. He had not been expecting that.

“There aren't, like, two of them here, are there? A nice twin and an evil twin or something?”

“Ugh, no. I can't deal with the one. Seriously, he's the Raven Queen's lackey, basically a glorified bounty hunter. You can't trust anything coming out of that snobby Cockney mouth, yeah?”

Taako felt something inside himself crumple. He kind of lost it a bit. The tears that had been threatening earlier now fell down his face in streams and a gasping sob caught in his throat. He held his hand over his mouth to muffle the noise, leaning his back against the door standing between him and Ren, struggling to control his emotions.

He felt conflicted. The Krav he had met first—the one who kissed him so tenderly—and this Krav who was so cold . . . they seemed like two different people, and he couldn't tell which was real.

No. Krav had _promised no matter what_ that he was Taako's friend. Could he believe in that? What else could he do?

He scrubbed his hands across his face, trying to remove all evidence of his breakdown, and finished dressing. The fact was that he had been up for an entire stressful day, had not eaten since lunch, and still had a full work shift ahead of him. Exhaustion weighed on him, but he pulled himself together to get to work.

It wasn't something he liked to advertise about himself to his friends, but Taako was, in fact, no stranger to hard work. He and Lup had grown up poor, having to earn the funds for anything extra that they wanted. He had spent plenty of time mowing lawns, weeding gardens, flipping burgers, and the like, so he was confident in his ability to handle whatever they threw at him here. Didn't mean he had to like it.

It became painfully clear quite quickly that he and Ren were given the most disgusting, heavy manual labor the place could offer. The bunch of dicks running the place couldn't handle that Ren was smarter than them, apparently. He'd seen it before. He certainly didn't make a lot of friends among his coworkers. He'd flipped off at least two of them at one point or another, and he'd sassed basically everyone he came in contact with. Eh. It was his style, and they were idiots. They deserved it.

Ren was all right, though. He found himself appreciating her attitude and camaraderie more and more as the shift went by. Given time, she might even become a friend, if he was forced to stay here that long. He hoped he wouldn't be here that long.

Partway through the evening, Taako paused at an open door, having taken a basin of dirty mop water out to dump in the lawn. He took a moment to examine the nail he had broken earlier—all the way down to the quick. _Ow_. He frowned at his nails. They were painted a pretty purple to match the flowers on his boots. He'd done them himself and was rather proud of how they'd come out. Only now one of them was broken and ragged. Ugh.

Outside, rain had begun pouring down in buckets. He hoped Magnus and Merle were somewhere warm and dry; he was worried about them. He glanced up to see what looked like a shadow wearing a Noh mask waiting in front of the door for him to move out of the way. Any other time, he'd be scared out of his wits to see something like that, but at this point, it just looked like another guest of the spa. They were all really weird. He moved out of the way.

“Hey, you want to come in out of the rain?” The figure bowed slightly and glided past him into the spa. Taako shrugged and carried on with his work, writing it off as just one more weird experience in a long, long day full of weird experiences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! Things will get better for Taako, I promise. It's just going to take a bit to get to that point.
> 
> Let me know what you liked, what you hated; your comments are welcome. Thanks for reading! The next chapter should be up by next Tuesday at the latest.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of my favorite chapters of this story. Hope you enjoy!

Taako finally fell into the dormitory bed, exhausted, just as the sun was rising the next morning. It had been a seemingly endless night of hard work, hazing, and demanding guests that all blurred into each other after a while. His limbs felt like jello. Naturally, the moment his head hit the nest of pillows he'd managed to steal, he was wide awake, unable to stop his churning thoughts. Eventually, though, he fell into a fitful sleep, surrounded by snoring coworkers.

Around midday, he was awakened by a hand gently shaking his shoulder. He looked up into deep brown, beautiful eyes. He smiled sleepily up at Krav.

“Hey, what's up?” Then, alertness and memory finally caught up to him.

“Oops, sorry, I'm not supposed to speak to you, am I, Master Krav?” he added in a cold, steely tone, sitting up and pulling away from Krav's touch. He may have mostly decided to trust Krav, but he was still pissed about his treatment the night before. Krav's expression fell, looking miserable.

“I'm so sorry about that. I- I have a front to keep up in the spa, and they would have only treated you worse if they knew I cared about you. But I'm sorry I didn't have time to explain. I didn't mean to hurt you.” He looked about ready to cry, and Taako relented despite himself.

“Okay, homie,” he said, reaching out to squeeze Krav's fingers where they rested on the edge of his bed. “That was a shitty thing to do, but I forgive you.” Now that his full attention wasn't devoted to his anger, he realized this was a strange time and place for Krav to be coming to him.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, voice rising in concern. “Are Magnus and Merle all right?”

“Shh, it's okay. Don't wake the others,” Krav warned as one of the others sleeping nearby stirred. “Get dressed and meet me outside in the garden by the camellia.”

Taako stared after his receding form until he passed through the door and out of view. Man, was the dude hot. Seriously, that ass. . . . He pulled himself from his musings and moved to follow Krav's directions.

A few minutes later, Taako sneaked out of a side entrance to the spa, stopping to grab his boots from the boiler room, and met Krav in the garden they had parted in the night before.

“Hey there, hot stuff,” Taako said with a slight smile. Krav smiled back warmly, offering his hand, and Taako felt more relaxed than he had since Magnus and Merle had first dragged him into that damned park. He reached out to take the hand Krav offered and followed him out of the gardens and into the surrounding park. It was empty and silent in the daylight, although the sense of eeriness he felt was different now that he knew what inhabited this place in the dark.

“I'm taking you to see your friends now,” Krav said. “But you have to understand, they won't know you. Right now, they don't remember their past lives.” He led Taako into a stable full of pigs, stopping in front of a pen holding two large pigs. Taako stared.

“Is this really them?” he asked. Krav nodded. “Well, damn.” He stared a bit longer, as though etching them in his memory, before addressing the pigs directly.

“Hey, Mags, Merle. I don't know if you can even hear me in there, but I'm going to fix this. Even if you did get your own idiot selves into this. I'm not sure how yet, but we're all getting out of here and going home, together.”

Throughout all this, Krav stood quietly at his side, silently supporting him. Taako really appreciated that. When Taako finally turned away from his friends, Krav took his hand again and led him out, up to a sunny hillside.

They sat together for a minute, just soaking in the sunshine and saying nothing. Then Krav reached into his coat and pulled out a bundle, handing it to Taako. He stared at it in confusion for a moment before realization hit.

“These are my clothes,” he murmured. He fumbled through the bundle, pulling out his phone and Lup's note. “Taako, that's my name,” he said, reading it from the note. Somehow, it had grown hazy in his mind, replaced by the “Koko” that the Raven Queen had called him. It was . . . strange to him that she had landed on the one name that was also intrinsically _him_ , the nickname his sister had called him since they were little. But it still felt like losing a bit of himself to not remember his true name.

“Yes,” Krav replied, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Be sure to keep that note. Hide it and your other belongings carefully. If you forget your name, you won't be able to go home, ever.” Okay, wait. No one ever mentioned _that_ before. That was terrifying. Taako swiftly stuffed the note deep into his pocket.

Krav continued, a wistful tone to his voice and a faraway look in his eyes, “I'd give anything to remember my own name. But you know,” he said, coming back to the moment and looking Taako directly in the eye, “I've never forgotten yours.” He smiled gently.

“Sounds like fate,” Taako said, leaning shoulder-to-shoulder against Krav.

“Mm,” Krav hummed. He pulled out a smaller packet, handing it to Taako. He unwrapped it to find a couple of Monte Cristo sandwiches.

“Hey, thanks, but I'm not really hungry right now.” He knew he should be starving by now, but he wasn't sure he could stomach anything, especially not with everything he had seen and heard in the last hour.

“Just . . . try a bite or two. Please?” And how could Taako argue with _that_? He heaved a sigh the took a bite. Wow, that was really good—just like he made back home.

Everything seemed to crash over him at once, and it was all just too much. He started to cry, huge, nasty, snotty tears rolling down his face. He was kind of afraid that Krav would be repulsed, not that he could stop himself right now. But instead, Krav wrapped a cold but comforting arm around him, kissing him tenderly on the temple and urging him to eat more.

Taako finished both sandwiches in the end. By that point, he had finally pulled himself together. He started to wipe his disgusting face on his sleeve but found a fancy monogrammed handkerchief offered to him instead. Because of course, Krav _would_ be the sort to carry that kind of thing, wouldn't he.

“Thanks,” he said, mopping up his face and sniffing. “Hey, Krav, what are we going to do? I've got that job now, but I still don't know how to get my friends turned back and get us home.”

Krav reached up to brush a loose strand of hair back behind Taako's ear, leaving his hand resting gently on Taako's face afterwards.

“I know. Just trust me a little longer. I have an idea; it's just going to take a bit longer to put it in motion. Keep your head down and stay out of trouble, okay?”

Taako snorted softly. “Have you met me? Trouble is, like, my middle name.” Krav laughed softly at that. “But yeah, I'll try. I don't quite know why, but I _do_ trust you.”

“Thank you.” Krav leaned forward to touch their foreheads together for a moment before standing, pulling Taako up with him. “Come on, we should get you back and let you get some sleep before work tonight. We don't need you keeling over from exhaustion.”

“Yeah, okay,” Taako agreed. All that crying had worn him out, and Krav's reassurance allowed him to relax enough that he felt like maybe he actually _could_ fall asleep again.

They parted ways in front of the spa. Krav actually raised Taako's hand to his lips, bowing over to kiss it, the adorable nerd. Taako felt something warm inside himself as he headed back into the spa, turning once to look back. Only, he didn't see the sweet, attractive guy he'd been with standing there—he saw a skeletal figure in black robes with glowing red eyes raise a scythe and open a rift in the air before stepping through and disappearing.

“Wha—Krav's some kinda Grim Reaper or something?” He should probably be really turned off by that, but he found he didn't actually mind. Sometime during their time together today, he had decided that Krav was Krav and that he would trust him, period. He hadn't realized at the time that undeath figured into that “no matter what,” but apparently it did. Huh. Well, that did explain why Krav was always cold whenever he touched him.

When he returned to the dorm, Taako was pleased that he was able to fall asleep properly, lulled by the rain that had started falling again. His sleep was untormented by the agitation and nightmares that had plagued him before. Nothing had truly been resolved, yet he felt hopeful somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I'd love to hear what you think. :D


	6. Chapter 6

The next day (well, night) was full of more heavy labor. Taako worked hard and actually garnered some favor with some of the higher-ups despite his attitude. He _was_ capable, after all. When he chose to be.

Apparently, he had also earned the goodwill of some fairly wealthy customer who had showered the spa with money. It seemed weird for a spa for the spirits to be so concerned with wealth, but what did he know? In any case, there was a festive air that night, and a lot of the spa employees spent the wee hours of the morning drinking raucously after the guests left or went to bed. Whatever. Taako wasn't in the mood.

The same spirit did give Taako a . . . gift? Tip? Something. It was a dense, round brownish-gray lump that fit easily in his palm and smelled strongly herbal, almost medicinal. After the guest left, he shrugged and put it in his pocket, forgetting about it in the rush of the busy shift.

After their work was over, Taako sat on the balcony outside the dormitory, gazing into the dark with Ren. Together, they watched the rain continue to pour and shared a plate of sandwiches. Not nearly as good as the ones Krav had brought him, but quite acceptable. Still, that made him think—he hadn't seen Krav since the day before when they had sneaked out together. Worrying, especially since Krav had been talking about working on an idea of some ambiguous sort.

“Hey Ren, have you seen Krav around today?” he asked, trying his hardest to sound casual.

“Seriously, are you on about that guy again?” _Damn_ , he must have not pulled off the casual angle as well as he had hoped.

Ren continued with a shrug. “He just disappears sometimes. They say he goes off to do the Raven Queen's dirty work, tracking down the souls of the damned or some such. I dunno. He's not here; that's all I know.”

Huh. That didn't exactly fit with the Krav Taako was getting to know, although it did kinda suit the whole Grim Reaper alter ego he had going. But Taako was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Even if what Ren said was true, maybe those people were really horrible, or maybe the Raven Queen was forcing Krav to do it against his will or something.

He stared out, watching the rain slow to a drizzle, then stop. Looking out, it was like looking at a sea. Nearly everything was covered by the water. The moon reflected luminously on the surface. Beneath them, a train passed on tracks barely sticking up enough to be visible.

“Someday, I'm hopping on that train and getting out of here,” Ren said, staring after the passing train cars wistfully.

Taako could respect that. Jumping a train and leaving didn't sound like such a bad idea right about now. He wondered if it would be so easy to get away, especially with someone as powerful as the Raven Queen holding his contract. Well, Krav said he was working on something, so Taako would wait for now.

It had better work, though. If he didn't make it home, and soon, Lup would _find_ a way to track his ass down, even if it involved séances or demon deals or something equally creepy. Her nerdy boyfriend would probably help her if it came to that. Taako shuddered at the thought. Considering how real this place he'd ended up was, there was no telling what else was out there that his sister could stumble onto accidentally. Nope. He was _going_ to get home—along with his two screwball friends—before she had a chance to get too worried, and that was that.

***

Around the middle of the next day, Taako awoke violently from a bad dream about not being able to turn Magnus and Merle back from their pig forms. Apparently, he was more worried about his friends than he'd like to admit. As he calmed his breathing, he looked around the dorm, surprised to see all the other beds empty. He'd figured that normally at this time of day, his coworkers would be snoring, especially after partying so late last night.

“What's the hell's going on?” he wondered, getting up and walking out onto the balcony to take a look around. It really was breathtaking to see how flooded the area was in the light of day—it was like looking at an ocean extending forever.

He stepped back inside, got dressed properly, and headed into the main part of the spa. On the way down to the guest areas, he ran into Ren, who was fully dressed and darting about with an excited glint in her eyes.

“Hey, Koko! I was just coming to wake you up. There's this new guest here who's paying actual gold directly to the staff—the guy's totally loaded. You should come get gold for yourself before the Raven Queen catches wind and gets involved. She's all big on 'proper protocol' and all.” She wrinkled her nose at the thought.

Now, Taako grew up poor enough that the chance to get real gold would typically be an opportunity he'd jump at. But he couldn't bring himself to get excited for it now, not here like this. He hadn't seen Krav since he'd disappeared right after telling Taako he had an idea to help. That had been nearly a full day ago now, and Taako was getting kind of worried. Plus, he had to admit, he was starting to just plain miss being around the guy. In comparison, gold just didn't seem particularly interesting at the moment.

“Thanks, sister, but Ta- Koko's good. I'm gonna go see if I can track down Krav,” he replied after a moment too long of a pause.

Ren sighed. “Really? Krav again? Well, you know where to find me if you need me.”

“Um, thanks?” he called after her already retreating back. Gold made people weird, he realized. He shrugged, heading back upstairs to start looking around, not that he had any real idea _where_ to look for Krav, considering that he'd disappeared into a rift in space before.

Taako stopped on the balcony outside the dorms, staring out at the water. He sighed and leaned forward, propping his chin in his hands.

“Hey, Krav, where are you? It'd be real great if you could show up about now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I know this chapter's kind of short and not particularly eventful. It's setting us up for things to start happening in the next chapter, though, which should be up on Saturday.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since the last chapter was so short, have a longer chapter this time. Enjoy!

As Taako stood there, looking out at the sun reflecting on the water, a slash appeared in the sky by the porch, and a skeletal form stepped through. Afterwards, Taako couldn't say exactly how he knew—maybe the way Krav's eyes glowed less brightly, maybe how his form slumped and stumbled—but he could tell immediately that something was wrong. Krav was hurt, although how a skeleton _could_ be hurt, Taako didn't know.

He hurried forward to help Krav into the building to sit down. Krav's red eyes stared blankly past him with no sign of recognition. It was extremely unnerving, and Taako felt a pit developing in his stomach.

“Shit. Wow, um. Hey, babe? Krav? You, uh, you think you could come back now? It's me, Taako? Your, uh, maybe sorta boyfriend? I'd really love it if you could just look at me right now? This whole blank staring thing is _really_ starting to creep me out.”

He reached with trembling hands to touch Krav's face. The bone felt less cold and strange than he'd expected, and he settled into the touch. The next few minutes were some of the longest in his life as he held Krav, murmuring gently to him and trying desperately to figure out how to help when there was no visible sign of what was wrong.

Finally, when Taako was on the verge of panic, Krav stirred slightly in his arms, turning to face him. Those red eyes held a spark of recognition now, although their light was still dulled, from what Taako could tell. Not that he knew _anything_ about the health and wellbeing of freaking Grim Reapers. He felt panic constricting his throat again.

“Taako,” Krav's voice creaked out.

“Hey there,” Taako replied weakly. “You, uh, you had me worried there. What happened? Do we need to get you to, like, a doctor or something? You don't look so good. Well, you're a skeleton, but uh, you know what I mean.” Boy was he rambling. This whole situation was making him very uncomfortable and nervous. He still hadn't stopped shaking.

“I found it,” Krav said, opening one skeletal fist to reveal an object Taako had missed in his earlier concern. It appeared to be some kind of golden spindle with red thread wrapped around it? Not that Taako knew much about spindles outside of what he'd seen in _Sleeping Beauty_ , but he thought that's what they were supposed to look like.

“It belongs to Istus,” Krav continued, his voice rough and thin and just . . . wrong. “It's an artifact of great power. With it, you can change your fate, get yourself and your friends safely home.”

“Wow, that—that's awesome. Thanks. But what about you? You're worrying me here.” But Krav didn't respond, seeming to slip from consciousness, although again, Taako knew _nothing_ about Reaper anatomy and physiology. He had no idea who he could get to help, though. The Raven Queen was absent, not that he particularly trusted her to begin with. Ren was busy with whatever craziness was going on downstairs and didn't seem like she'd be particularly eager to help Krav anyhow. Wait! Garfield might know something, and he'd seemed decent enough when Taako first met him.

He pocketed the spindle and dragged Krav's unmoving form—which was heavier than he might have expected—to a service elevator that was unlikely to be used, even in all the bustle of the day. This particular elevator was bright yellow and had a face on it. It also had a certain fleshiness to it and referred to itself loudly as “Upsy, Your Lifting Friend.” The music inside, unlike the zen background tunes played in the rest of the spa, was upbeat and sung by the apparently-sentient elevator itself. It was very disturbing, but as such, was typically avoided by the spa staff. Taako somehow felt that it would be best to be unseen as they descended to see Garfield, although he couldn't quite say why.

As he got into the elevator, he felt a weight settle onto his shoulder. He jumped, nearly dropping Krav. Wha—? Oh. It was a raven, gazing with what looked almost like concern at Krav's unconscious form. In fact, Taako could almost swear it was the same raven that had pointed out where to sign when he first signed his contract here, was it only a couple of days ago? Well, the bird didn't seem inclined to go elsewhere, and he was honestly a little scared of trying to make it move. That beak was impressive.

The trip downstairs seemed endless. As they descended, he used one arm to prop Krav up. The other hand toyed with the spindle in his pocket. He wondered how exactly you could use a spindle to change fate or whatever. That didn't make a lot of sense to him, but then, a lot of things in this weird place didn't. Nothing new there. Could this thing change Krav's fate and make him better, too? Maybe Garfield would know.

Finally, _finally,_ Upsy deposited them on the correct floor, and Taako dragged Krav through the halls to the boiler room, ignoring the elevator's cheery farewell. Thank goodness, at that point, the raven decided to fly ahead instead of weighing him down even more. As they entered the room, Garfield's hooded form turned to face them, glowing eyes growing wide.

“What's going on here?” he asked.

“Hey, uh, I think we need help,” Taako said, settling Krav against the drawers lining the wall. “Something's wrong with Krav. He brought this back, said it could change my fate? Then he just, like, collapsed.” He held out the spindle for Garfield's inspection, the gold reflecting the boiler's light as the small object changed hands.

“Well crap, this is bad,” Garfield said after inspecting the spindle for a minute. “I think, no, I'm _sure_ this belongs to the Lady Istus. It has a powerful curse on it. If Krav took it from her . . . well, it's not good. And fixing it's going to be dangerous. But if you want Krav to survive. . . .”

“Wait, survive?! No, no, no. He's gotta be okay. What do we do?” Taako felt as though he couldn't breathe. Krav _had_ to be okay. He'd just found him; he couldn't lose him now.

“If you really care about him,” Garfield began. Taako nodded fiercely, distantly recognizing that yes, he _did_ truly care about Krav. “Then I think the only way to fix this is to return the spindle to the Lady Istus and beg for her mercy. She's powerful and dangerous, but . . . I've never met her myself, but I _have_ heard that she is equitable and not completely heartless. Maybe, just maybe, you can save him.”

“Okay. I'll do it,” Taako found himself agreeing. Since when had he become the sort to risk himself to help someone he'd only just recently met? But he found he could not fathom doing otherwise. “So, how do I get there? Where do I go?” he asked.

Garfield turned and dug through a drawer, pulling out a small bundle of tickets.

“I'll make you a deal. I'll give you these tickets if you bargain with Lady Istus for him. I'm oddly fond of the boy, you know? He's had it rough since he got here. Seemed like he just forgot who he was a bit. But he's a good kid. These tickets will get you on the train; there's a stop just down the tracks from here,” he said. “Ride it all the way to Refuge. That's your stop; don't forget it.”

“Refuge? Got it. Deal.”

“Lady Istus's home is a ways down the path off the road. Once you're done, you'll have to walk back on the tracks. The train only goes one way.”

Taako nodded absently, not really able to care about that part yet. If he didn't compartmentalize some, he'd break, and he couldn't afford to do that. He watched Krav's still form, unable to look away. He knew he should get moving, but he couldn't quite make himself. Not just yet.

As he stared, Krav's body unexpectedly changed back from a skeleton into the attractive guy Taako had first met. Taako's breath caught, although whether at the brief flash of recognition or memory from before all this, back in his real life, that was lost again before he could really grasp it or from the state of Krav's body, he couldn't say. Krav did _not_ look good. His cheeks were chalky, his skin colder even than usual, his breathing labored.

“Krav! Hey, I'm here. It's going to be okay. I'll fix this; I promise,” Taako said, bending over to brush Krav's dreads out of his face. “Hey, Garfield? Do you have some blankets?”

As he sat beside Krav, he heard Garfield rustling about. After a few minutes of digging around, Garfield came back with a couple of blankets and a pillow. He helped Taako get Krav arranged more comfortably on them. The raven watched them the entire time, not that Taako could be bothered to pay it much mind at the moment.

He sat there for a while, just holding Krav's hand. He should leave now; he knew that. But a part of him was scared that Krav wouldn't be there when he returned.

“Look after him for me while I'm gone?” he asked, finally looking up at Garfield.

“Of course,” Garfield replied. He looked as though he were about to say more when the door to the boiler room opened with a clang.

“Koko, thank goodness you're here. I've been looking everywhere for you!” It was Ren, and she looked _scared_ , her skin greyer than normal, pointed ears flat against her head, eyes frantic. Taako hadn't thought she _could_ look that scared.

“Ren, what's wrong?” he asked, concern coloring his voice.

“That guest I was telling you about? The one with all the gold?”

“Yeah? What about him?”

“Turns out, not a guest. He's some kind of monster, and he's started eating people! He says _you_ let him in, and now he's asking for you.”

“What the hell? I don't remember letting anyone like that in.”

“Um, Noh mask, shadowy figure?”

Taako thought for a moment before it clicked.

“Oh yeah, I did let that guy in, didn't I? It was raining so hard, and I thought he was a guest. Um, oops?”

“Oops, nothing. You _have_ to help. Please?” Ren finally looked around the room enough to register Krav's bundled form on the floor, his hand still firmly clasped in Taako's. “What is going on here, anyway?”

“Something you wouldn't recognize. It's called _love_ ,” Garfield cut in. Ren sputtered incoherently at that.

_Ooh, sick burn_ , Taako thought. He had to wonder, though—was that what this was? Did he _love_ Krav? He shook his head to clear it. He'd worry about that later; for now, he had to get moving. He squeezed Krav's unresponsive hand one last time and leaned over to kiss his forehead gently, lingering over the touch. Then, he stood, straightening his back and looking at Garfield with determination in his eyes.

“Hey, Garfield, you still have those clothes I left down here?” He had asked Garfield to hide his normal clothes and belongings after Krav gave them back to him. There really wasn't anywhere safe to keep them in the dorms, after all.

Garfield dug around in one of the seemingly endless rows of drawers in the room, pulling out a small bundle. Taako accepted it and moved to duck out of the room to find somewhere to change. If he was going to do this, he would do it as Taako, and he would look nothing less than fabulous while doing it.

“Koko—” Ren began as he reached the door.

“Yeah, Ren, I know. Just let me get changed. I have to go try to help Krav, but I'll see what I can do to take care of this guy upstairs before I go, okay?” He was in a hurry, but somehow Ren had become his friend, and she needed him now, too. And it _was_ kind of his mistake that had started this mess.

“Okay, thanks, Koko. You're a real friend,” she said, smiling weakly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Things are picking up, now. I'm planning to have the next chapter up on Tuesday.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild grossness warning for this chapter. If you've seen _Spirited Away_ , it's pretty much the same as the scene with No-Face in the movie, so. . . .
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Back in his own clothes, Taako felt confident in a way he hadn't since he got to this strange place. He reached into his pocket, touching the note from Lup. He was _going_ to get through all of this and get back to his sister; it was just going to take a bit longer than he'd originally hoped.

“Sorry, Mags, Merle. Just hold on a bit longer, okay?” he murmured as he stalked up the stairs to the main floor where the Noh-faced monster was holed up in a room, demanding more and more food according to Ren.

Chaos reigned as he got to the main floor, but instead of the excited fervor of earlier, the atmosphere was now one of dread and fear. No one wanted to serve the monster, but everyone was afraid of what it would do if they stopped giving it what it wanted.

“There he is. There's the bastard that got us in this mess to begin with,” the angry mutters followed Taako down the hall. He raised his head proudly and carried on, casually flipping the whisperers off over his shoulder as he passed, not bothering to look at them. His destination was apparent from the scurrying going on around him, and none of the other staff members (besides Ren) had done a _thing_ to endear themselves to him.

Honestly, if it weren't for Ren, he might not even care enough to do anything about the monster, but _she_ cared, so he'd take care of this for his friend. Or at least, he'd try. He still wasn't sure how exactly he was supposed to make this all happen.

As he approached the room, the foreman—a horrendously froggy-looking fellow who smelled of fish—hurried up, nervous sweat dripping from him.

“Koko, thank goodness you're here! It won't stop asking for you. It's eaten three staff members already. This is your fault; you fix this or else.” And with that, he scurried off before Taako could even say anything.

“Yeah, yeah, blame it all on Taako. It's not like you all weren't happy he was here when he was showering you with gold, right?” Taako felt a weight settle on his shoulder. He looked up to see the same raven again perched there, staring at him. It reached out its beak to pluck gently at a strand of his hair.

“Huh, I guess you're gonna stick with me at least, aren't you? Wasn't exactly planning to pick up a raven as a friend, seeing what a witch your queen is, but I guess I'll take what I can get right now.”

As he moved to open the door into the room, Taako noted that the area had become eerily quiet as everyone else had fled. He looked back along the hall and saw a few heads peeking out from doorways. Ren approached slowly from the end of the hall, giving him a thumbs up and a weak smile.

“Right, Taako, let's do this,” he said, trying to psych himself up. Mostly, he just wanted this whole ordeal to be over with so he could actually go and get that curse lifted from Krav. He didn't have _time_ to be wasting here with some monster pitching a tantrum, damn it! He straightened his back and opened the door, stepping briskly into the room in one graceful motion.

He almost stepped right back out in horror at the sight that greeted him. Food, dishes, and other detritus littered the floor. There was almost nowhere clear to step. Looming over it all was a horribly distended, grotesque figure shoveling food into its gaping maw. The only thing recognizable about the thing was the Noh mask sitting at the top of it. In all other ways, it was simply horrific and monstrous. Taako swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat, steeling himself to just get this over with.

“Koko, you came! Here, try these,” a voice grated out before Taako could think of anything to say. The monster held out a tray of delicious-looking fruits, but the thought of putting anything in his mouth at the moment made Taako gag again.

“Yeah, I'm good. Look, bud, I think you've overstayed your welcome, and it's time to leave. I can show you to the door. . . .”

“Stay with me, Koko. I'll give you gold, only you. I'm so lonely.” Wow, that was . . . a lot. Also, kind of creepy when coming from a monster that had already eaten a few of the staff members. A horrible thought occurred to Taako.

“Listen, darling, I get the whole lonely thing, really I do. But, uh, I promise I won't settle well, so I wouldn't recommend eating me, okay? Or at least,” a probably terrible idea came to him, but it was his best shot, “try this first. It's good for the digestion.” And with that, he tossed that medicinal-smelling gift a guest had given him last night straight into the monster's maw.

The Noh-faced monster retched, puking up a nasty mess of partially-digested food. It turned towards Taako, fury streaming from it in nearly tangible waves.

“Koko, what did you _do_ to me?!” it howled.

“Yeah, uh, that's the only idea Taako's got. I think it's time for me to peace out. You losers have fun with that,” Taako said, turning on his heel and running. This was one of those times that he was grateful for his dexterity, even if running wasn't really his style.

He darted down the hallways, descending multiple flights of stairs—the monster following close behind him the entire time. He dodged around staff and spa guests that happened to still be in the halls, leaving a trail of chaos behind him.

Once, Taako looked behind himself to see the Noh-faced monster disgorging one of the people it had swallowed—whole and apparently still alive. Taako blinked in surprise before turning to continue running. The monster was slowing down and looking less monstrous as it gradually vomited everything it had consumed while in the spa, but he still wasn't _about_ to let it catch him.

He arrived at an exterior door, only to find water coming right up to the threshold. Right, crap, everything was flooded. Looks like he'd be swimming. Ugh. Just then, he heard Ren's voice calling out.

“Hey, Koko, over here!” She paddled a little coracle up to the door so he could hop in. The boat shifted unsteadily as he stepped into it, but it seemed like it would support both their weight at least. He looked at Ren and could see her trembling. He wasn't sure how much she had seen of what went down, but it looked like it was enough. Ren paddled the coracle towards the train tracks.

Taako looked back over his shoulder to see the Noh-masked spirit still following him. For a moment, his throat felt clogged with fear, but as he looked more closely, he began to relax. There was no trace remaining of the monster that had terrorized the spa, only the mild-mannered spirit that Taako had originally thought was a guest. Taako remembered what he had said about being lonely. _Well, as long as he doesn't eat anybody, I guess it's cool if he tags along_ , he thought to himself.

As they reached the tracks, he felt a weight settle on his shoulder, tiny claws digging into his shoulder through his shirt. Looked like the raven was coming, too. He was getting a whole entourage for his trip to Refuge.

“Here,” Ren said, “you'll have to walk from this point. If you follow the tracks, they'll take you to the station. It's just a bit down the line.” She reached out to squeeze Taako's shoulder, a weak smile on her face.

“Be careful, okay?” she added as he climbed out onto the flooded tracks, pants rolled up and hiking boots in his hand.

“Yeah, you too. Thanks for everything, Ren. Look after Krav for me while I'm gone?”

She rolled her eyes, but nodded once in reply before turning the coracle around and paddling back to the spa. Taako turned and started following the tracks to the station, water lapping at his ankles and newfound entourage in tow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! The next chapter should be up on Saturday.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taako takes a very strange train ride and finally meets Istus. Hope you enjoy!

When the train arrived, Taako found himself greeted by a person-shaped shadow wearing an old-fashioned conductor's uniform. It held out a gloved hand, clearly asking for tickets. Taako dug in his pocket, pulling out the small wad of tickets Garfield had given him. The conductor counted them off. There were exactly three, one each for Taako, the raven, and the Noh-masked spirit. It seemed like fate, so Taako shrugged and rolled with it.

The train ride itself was like some sort of odd Internet creepypasta. The car they entered was full of people-shaped shadows and packages with strange occult symbols on them. None of the shadow-people spoke or moved from their seats, acting for all the world like a group of silent commuters. The whole thing would have had former-Taako freaking out. As he sat there on the train, he pondered that. His entire life would be divided into before and after, he supposed. This was the sort of experience that changed a person irrevocably.

He stared out the window of the train in silence as they passed one strange scene after another. He wondered how Krav was doing, worried that he would be too late or that he wouldn't be able to convince Lady Istus or that something else horrible would happen. A single tear escaped down his face before he sniffed and scrubbed it away. He couldn't let himself think like that. This had to work. It _had_ to.

Finally, as night was falling, they arrived at an isolated stop labeled with only a rickety sign proclaiming they had arrived at “Refuge.” There was no one within sight. Taako stepped off the train with no small amount of trepidation, the raven and the Noh-faced spirit (Taako had taken to calling him Bertrand) following him.

Leading away from the train stop, there was only one path to follow, a small, overgrown trail winding away out of sight. Seeing nowhere else to go, Taako began to follow it, the way lit by the half-moon shining in the sky and reflected in the water still surrounding them. An absent part of his mind pointed out that he thought the moon should have been closer to full now, but he couldn't be sure. No point in worrying about that now. It wasn't like he could change it if time passed weirdly here. Lup was so going to kill him when he got home, though.

After walking for several minutes—the train station long lost to sight by that point—Taako saw a small, cozy cottage ahead. Smoke rose from the chimney, and lights shone welcomingly from the windows. This was _not_ what he had expected from the abode of a powerful being who had cursed Krav, but he didn't see anywhere else the path could possibly lead. He walked forward, approaching the door, then freezing in his steps as it swung open on its own.

“Come on in, dear, you're letting in a draft,” a warm voice called from inside the cottage. Taako shrugged. _Nothing for it_ , he thought, stepping over the threshold. The door closed firmly behind them as his entourage entered the room.

It was strange, Taako realized as he looked around. This place was nearly the exact opposite of the Raven Queen's quarters—all warm and cozy where hers was gothic and austere. Yet this place carried the same sense of weight and barely-contained power that made Taako tremble.

“Sit, sit, I'll make us some tea,” the voice invited. He looked to find its owner, the Lady Istus, he presumed. He was perplexed to see an ageless woman, warm and feminine, yet if he had been asked to describe her, he knew he never could. There was a sense of power emanating from her, despite the soft smile she offered as she stood from her weaving to go to the stove to make tea, and Taako got the feeling that crossing her would be a very bad idea.

“Lady Istus,” Taako said, voice shaking slightly. He held out the golden spindle. “I'm here to return this to you and to ask you to remove the curse from Krav. I'm terribly sorry he took it. He did it for me, you see. But I-I care about him a lot, and he's really sick from the curse. Please.”

She took the spindle gently, examining it.

“You have no idea what you held or what it can do, do you?” she asked.

“Uh, not really. This whole thing is kinda above my paygrade, to be honest.” She smiled at that.

“Be at peace, dear heart. The curse is broken. I have a strict non-interference policy myself, but it seems that true love was enough to free your Krav from the curse. As a matter of fact,” she paused as though listening for a few seconds before continuing, “I believe he is on his way here now. You will stay the night here, of course. Unfortunately, as I said, I don't interfere and can't help you get your friends back or work things out with your boy and the Raven Queen. But if you can remember your shared past, I think you'll be able to figure it out.”

“I don't really get it,” Taako complained, taking a bite of the scone Lady Istus had offered him. _That is a baller scone,_ he thought, eyes widening at the flavor.

“Take your time, and try to remember. Once you've met someone, you never really forget them, not completely. Your fates are intertwined and can no more be separated than the ingredients in these scones can be separated back into flour and sugar and such once they've been baked. While you think about it, we're going to make something for you.”

She stood, moving to her spinning wheel, the spindle once more in its proper place. She beckoned the raven and “Bertrand” to come help her as she began to spin . . . something. Taako could sew in a pinch—doing so had saved his clothes budget on more than one occasion—but spinning was beyond him.

Nearly an hour later, Taako had nearly given himself a headache trying to think of something, _anything_ , connecting him to Krav in the past. Krav said Taako was someone that he never forgot. That meant their connection was important, right? So why couldn't he remember?!

As he sat there stewing, he heard a soft but resonant hum, followed by the sharp _snip_ of a pair of scissors.

“There, it's finished,” Istus said, handing him the most gorgeous hair-tie he'd ever seen, purple with a texture that glinted curiously in the light. “It's a talisman, woven from the threads your friends spun. It will protect you.”

“Wow, um, thanks. It's beautiful,” he said, reaching up to replace his current hair-tie with this one, placing his one from home around his wrist. It was strange, but he _did_ feel safer now. He sat back at the table, racking his brain for any memory of Krav and occasionally drinking more tea and munching on scones. He was going to have to get her recipe for the scones; they were delish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope that was fun. I really enjoyed writing Istus, especially since she was so different from what Taako expected. We're almost to the end, with two more full chapters and a short epilogue remaining. Thanks so much to everyone who's been reading along; you guys are awesome! :D


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, this is one of my favorite chapters, but it's also one of the ones I'm most nervous about. Obviously, the whole river-spirit thing doesn't really make sense for Krav, so here's my personal interpretation of his and Taako's backstory. Here there be sweet reunions. Hope you enjoy! :)

After maybe twenty more minutes of relative quiet, broken only by the whirring of Istus's spinning wheel and the occasional chink of tableware, there was a soft but insistent knock at the door.

“Go ahead and get it, dear. It's for you,” Istus said, not looking up from her spinning. Uncertain hope rose in Taako as he got up to get the door.

He swung it open to see Krav standing there, looking well and whole again, wearing a more confident smile than Taako had seen on him ever before. It suited him.

Taako stood there breathlessly for a moment before throwing his arms around Krav's neck and kissing him long and deeply. For the first time, Krav's lips felt warm as they moved eagerly against his own. Eventually, they had to pull apart for breath, although they still stood close, resting their foreheads against each other.

“Hi,” Krav said, confident smile now on the verge of a smirk. He wasn't even out of breath, the bastard.

“Hey,” Taako replied, trying to smooth over his own breathlessness and the touch of embarrassment he felt at his own eagerness. Not that Krav had seemed uneager himself, but still.

“Come inside and close the door, dear hearts. You're letting the cold in,” Istus called from inside the room. Right, they had an audience, didn't they? Taako cleared his throat awkwardly and pulled away, although he held on to Krav's hand as the two entered the cottage fully and closed the door behind themselves.

Several minutes later, everyone was settled at the table with bowls of soup and chunks of hearty bread (also delish), explaining everything that had happened to them. Taako conveniently left out the “true love breaks the curse” part of his story, but from the warm expression on Krav's face, he had to wonder if he didn't already know.

It seemed that Krav had been found by the Raven Queen before he awakened and that she had sat him down to talk before permitting him to leave. Apparently, there had been some _major_ misunderstandings going around, and she actually _cared_ about Krav and took his memories and put him to work for her to _protect_ him, because his memories were too much or something. She'd told him that she couldn't restore them herself, but that when he was ready, they would return on their own.

Also, it seemed that, while Magnus and Merle being turned into pigs and the three of them becoming stuck in the spirit realm was purely accidental, what happened to Taako _after_ meeting her was a test of some sort. She'd figured out he was the special boy that Krav always remembered and had decided to check him out. To see if he was good enough for Krav or some such rubbish.

Taako sat close to Krav, listening as he told his story. He was still thoroughly pissed at the Raven Queen and intended to hold that grudge for a _very_ long time. But it seemed that Krav was inclined to forgive and move on, so he figured he'd not harp on his opinions of her too much. For now, at least.

After the Raven Queen had explained herself and made peace with Krav, he had determined to leave to find Taako with haste. Before he had departed, though, he extracted her promise to return Magnus and Merle to their normal forms and let the three friends return home.

Taako sighed with relief at that, leaning against Krav's side for both comfort and support. It was as though he'd been operating in a constant state of tension for days, and he could finally permit himself to relax a bit. Krav's arm wrapped comfortingly around him, and he rubbed his hand gently up and down Taako's arm. Taako felt him press a soft kiss into his hair. Krav reached up to touch the hair tie Istus and the others had made for him.

“This is new. I like it,” he said.

“Yeah,” Taako murmured, drifting towards sleep even as he sat at the table. “They made it for me. Some kinda protective talisman or something.” Krav hummed in response before turning to Istus.

“My Lady Istus, I hate to intrude, but is there somewhere we could rest for a while? I don't think he's going to last much longer.”

“Of course, dear, right this way,” she said, standing to lead them to a small guest room off the main living quarters. Taako barely remembered stumbling towards the bed before the long, stressful day faded into a blur of sleep.

***

Taako woke with a start sometime in the wee hours of the morning. He turned to Krav, lying beside him, watching him and playing with the tips of Taako's hair. It could have been creepy—maybe it should have been—but he found it comforting instead, as he lay there trembling and breathing hard.

“Krav, I remembered,” he whispered unsteadily. Krav reached out to stroke his hair in slow, steady motions, as though he were trying to anchor Taako somehow.

“Remembered what?” he coaxed softly.

“How I knew you. Before, I mean. It was mixed into my dreams somehow, bits and pieces, but now that I've started thinking about it, it's like I can remember it all. I think I must have buried the memory before, some kind of PTSD sort of thing. It was pretty traumatic. I- I'm kinda scared to tell you.”

“Shh, it's all right. Tell me. We'll share the weight, deal with it together. It will be okay, promise.” Krav's reassurance seemed to break down some sort of barrier, and the words came flooding out of Taako in a rush.

“So, Lup and I were pretty young still, and our aunt we were staying with at the time was teaching some kind of summer cooking class at the community college. We tagged along and cooked right along with the actual students. It was fun. You . . . you were an assistant in the class; I think you were a student there during the year. I think your full name was . . . Kravitz? Anyhow, you helped me and Lulu a lot and we kinda became friends. Then one day after class, we were standing outside waiting for the bus home, and some car comes barrelling out of nowhere. You knocked me out of the way but got hit yourself. Krav . . . you died saving my life.”

By this point, Taako's voice was barely audible and he was shaking all over. He looked at Krav, who had a faraway look on his face and didn't seem to be breathing.

“Krav? Talk to me, babe. What's going on in there?”

Krav breathed out heavily, then he reached out and wrapped Taako in his arms, holding him close. Taako could feel him trembling as well.

“Oh, Taako. I- I remember now. I was studying to be a conductor, for an orchestra. I was helping out to make some extra cash for the next semester. You- you were just a little runt of a thing, you and your sister both, but you were a pair of spitfires. When that car came at you, I just reacted. No regrets, though. Taako, I am so, so glad that you're alive in the world. Never doubt that.”

Taako cuddled in closer, his head resting on Krav's chest so he could feel the resonance when Krav spoke. Krav continued.

“After . . . well, I didn't quite die in the usual sense. Life—or, well, Death, or the goddess of Death at least—had other plans for me. The Raven Queen took me into her service, looked after me like her own son in a way. She took my memories for a time, something about needing to heal, but I never forgot you. I looked in on you when I could—I know that sounds all creepy stalkerish, but I never intended it that way. Just. Seeing you made me feel anchored in a way nothing else did. I watched you growing up, and as you grew to adulthood, I fell in love with the person you had become. Taako, I love you. So very much.”

“I think . . . I might love you, too, Krav,” Taako mumbled into his chest, his voice barely audible. They lay there in silence together for a long while, just holding each other, before Taako gradually faded back into a more peaceful slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Only one more chapter and an epilogue to go. :D


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is the last full chapter. Only an epilogue to go after this. Hope you enjoy!

The two of them got up late the next morning, and after a delightful breakfast of honeyed oatmeal and fresh fruit (seriously, Taako needed to just steal all of Istus's recipes; her food was freaking amazing), they prepared to set out. Istus walked them to the door, her presence still impressive but tempered by the warmth of her demeanor.

“Be at peace my dears,” she said. “All shall be well. You're going to be amazing, the both of you.”

Taako nodded his thanks to her and turned to step through the rift Krav had opened. As he did so, he felt the weight of the raven settle on his shoulder again. Looked like she was going back with them. “Bertrand” seemed to have become fast friends with Lady Istus during their short stay and was going to remain at the cabin. It seemed for the best, all around.

Taako stepped through the rift (and wasn't that a weird experience) and found himself standing once again in front of the spa, the floodwaters finally receded. The Raven Queen's vast presence dominated the scene, although he was vaguely aware of others, Ren included, looking on from nearby. He inched closer to Krav, still unable to look at the Raven Queen properly. He felt the bird fly from his shoulder over to its master, and he felt oddly abandoned at its departure.

“Taako,” the Raven Queen's voice filled the air with the sound of thousands of rushing wings. “You have done well. You have acted with cleverness and cunning and have demonstrated your love for Kravitz clearly. I approve. You have my blessing. I am sorry for any distress these tests have brought you; I felt they were necessary at the time. I restore to you your true name and your freedom. Your friends are in their right form and await you on the other side, beyond the river. There is but one choice remaining for you: stay and live with your love or return with your friends to your own world. The choice is yours and yours alone.”

Taako stood, dumbstruck with all that had just been dumped on him and not a little angry at the goddess standing before him, however powerful she may be. _Krav cares about her_ , he reminded himself, swallowing back his ire. He looked up at Krav who rubbed his thumb across the back of Taako's hand comfortingly.

“I can't choose for you, either, love,” Krav said softly, reaching out to tuck a strand of hair behind Taako's ear. “I would be delighted if you would stay with me. But I understand if you have to go. If you do, I will do everything in my power to find a way to come to you instead. It just may take a while.”

“Krav, I- I don't want to lose you. I just found you. But this isn't my world. And my sister's going to be frantic as it is; you know how she gets. And she's my other half; you don't really get one of us without the other. I'm sorry.” His words were almost a sob by this point.

He reached up to kiss Krav one last time. It felt like goodbye. But Krav held him there with one hand cradling his face and deepened the kiss, transforming it into a promise. Taako clung to that promise, kissing him back with a transparency that he rarely revealed to anyone besides maybe Lup. Finally, they parted, although they both reached out to thread their fingers together, craving whatever closeness they could eke out in these last minutes before they had to part.

“Come on. I'll walk you to the river,” Krav said, leading Taako back through the streets of the now-deserted park. As they got to the field, he reached out to caress Taako's cheek with the back of his hand. “From here, you must go on your own. And you must not look back, no matter what. Understand?”

Taako nodded, tears filling his eyes. He turned, straightening his back, thrusting his chin out, and stalking forward with a purpose. Not looking back was the hardest thing he had _ever_ had to do, but he did it. He would trust Krav to figure it out. He had to.

***

As he crested the hill beyond the river, Taako saw Magnus and Merle, looking their normal selves. They waved him towards them impatiently.

“About time,” Magnus grumbled good-naturedly. “I was getting worried we'd lost you and would have to come searching.”

“Seriously, whose idea was it to go exploring some lame abandoned amusement park, anyway?” Merle added.

Taako just stared at them for a moment, a whole slew of emotions pouring through him too fast for him to really process. He shoved them all down and tried for something like a normal response. It looked like they remembered nothing, so anything else would only complicate things unnecessarily. And he _really_ didn't feel like explaining right now.

“Pretty sure it was you guys' damn idea. I didn't want to go hiking in the first place, remember? Come on; let's just go.” And with that, he stalked towards the empty building marking the entry into the park. He remembered how eerie it had seemed when they first arrived here. Now, it just seemed like some empty husk, sad and impotent. After everything Taako had been through, it would take a lot more than some creepy old building to get to him.

Coming out on the other side, Magnus and Merle voiced shock at seeing the Jeep covered in leaves and debris. Taako honestly wasn't surprised at this point. He pulled out his phone—and he _was_ surprised to see that he still had a bit of battery left. He'd have to call Lup as soon as he could get some signal again. He had a feeling she would be pissed—her default to keep from admitting how worried she actually was. He smiled a small, private smile, watching Magnus and Merle walk around the Jeep in befuddlement. It would be good to see Lup again.

He wasn't sure if he'd tell her about his experience, but he was confident that she would be understanding if he did decide to. He couldn't wait to introduce her to Krav again. Although he decided, in that moment, that he _would_ wait, however long it took. Krav had promised, and that would have to be enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I'll try to get the epilogue posted shortly rather than make you all wait for it. :)


	12. Epilogue

Taako walked briskly through the rain, holding an umbrella that mostly kept at least his hair and his books dry, although his floral-print leggings were definitely getting soaked around the ankles. It was finals week of his freshman year of college, and he had a free period between tests. He was trekking through the downpour to meet Lup and Magnus at the student commons to study, and they'd better be grateful he was coming out in this mess at all, dammit.

“Taako.” He barely heard the voice calling over the rain. He turned to see who could possibly be stopping him outside in _this_ weather—only to abandon his umbrella entirely and dart forward at a pace that would be embarrassingly undignified if he had paused to worry about that sort of thing.

It was Krav! Standing there in all his goth, dreadlocked glory, after over a year of _nothing_ , he was actually _there_.

Taako hurled himself into his arms, nearly bowling the both of them over onto the muddy sidewalk. He was crying, but he didn't care. Krav's arms wrapped around him, and he leaned over to kiss Taako, hesitantly at first, then more eagerly as Taako responded in kind.

“Hello, love. I promised I'd come. Sorry for making you wait,” Krav whispered against Taako's lips.

“I never doubted you,” Taako replied, leaning in to kiss him again. Never mind the cold springtime rain; he felt warm to the core of his being. It felt like coming home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, folks. I can't believe this story is finished. It's been kind of a crazy process, but I'm pleased with the end result. Thanks to everyone who's stuck with me to the end. You guys rock!


End file.
